432 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
lions. They had followed the oxen’s spoor several 
hours, and eventually brought back all the rest, and 
we made a strong kraal and kept watch all night, with 
several large fires round, but, apparently satisfied 
with what they had already done, the lions did not 
pay us another visit. It is vexatious to suffer such a 
loss through the carelessness of the Kaffirs, but I must 
make some allowance for them ; the poor lads were 
as dead beaten as myself with our four days and 
nights forced march. 
I have no brass wire, beads, or anything to trade 
a goat or sheep, or a little Kaffir corn from the 
Kaffirs, and can shoot nothing now on foot but small 
dry bucks, or a quagga or other rubbish, hardly 
eatable, and I shall have a hard bout of it now, ere 
I once more reach civilisation. When I do reach it, 
I shall not be in a hurry to leave it again. I am 
writing with a mixture of coffee and gunpowder. 
In about eighteen or twenty-one days, if all goes 
well, I hope to reach Sechele’s, where I may reckon 
on a few comforts from the German missionaries ; 
but the wagon runs heavily, squeaking all the way, 
and the wheels are as dry as tinder, and where now 
to procure a bit of grease to smear them with, I do 
not know. 
I had not even the satisfaction of shooting one of 
the lions, as it was mid-day ere I found the horses, 
and there were then no traces to be seen of them. 
January had taken himself off, sneaking back in 
the night. 
